I'm just starting this little questionaire because I want to know how common it is in Aikido circles. I know tradintional Aikido dosen't normally practice them but if you've ever watched an Aikido video your bound to see a few people flying through the air lol.

High falls are not generally pracitced at my dojo, except by the most experienced members when given leave by Sensei during advanced classes to freelance. "High falls" are dangerous, even under the best circumstances. I've heard stories of aikidoka being hurt trying them, and I seem to remember reading a death resulting from a high fall at Hombu? ~the ole' memory isn't what it used to be - but that story comes to mind~ Hope this helps. -Belvy

Everything I seen so far in my google searchs refer to HighFalls is nothing more than breakfalls.

I have trained under 2 (well 3 now since the whole AAA and AW split stuff) organizations at different times in my Aikido training and practiced a few sessions with others all of them did break falls and required them on rank exams as they move up in rank.

I found there is a big miss conception on breakfalls/Hihghfalls that when you fall you are thrown they are always a high of the ground and a hard fall. This is a yes and no thing it all depends on uke and their ukeme. The secret is the lower you get your head towards the ground the less distance you actually fall.

I also have to ask how can you truly practice Koshi Nage without high/break falls ?

Then again I love performing ukeme and I have always been complimented on how while I fall. I work hard on my ukeme and take much pride in it. You should work all your ukeme not just the easier rolls imo. I have found that my Aikido learning and understanding accelerated when I concentrated on my ukeme.

Then again most do not have my approach to ukeme. Example; I can do a breakfall from Koshi Nage without grabbing the others person gee. I also do breakfalls from Shihonage which is easier than most think but has a awkward feel due to body position and the way your elbow feels.

Yes, high falls and break falls are synomynous terms. We specifically practice them about once a week to get people comfortable with falling. However, they generally just kind of "happen" during techniques. This is particularly true during koshinage, kotegaeshi, and shitonage techniques.

However, they are generally avoided as they are hard on your body and are not a very good blending method between you and the mat.

I would disagree that high falls and breakfalls are the same thing. A high fall requires some different technique than a breakfall, and I'm not sure a good breakfall would protect you from a "highfall" position. Both are force dissipation techniques, but high falls are usually "rollouts" where breakfalls are usually with a "static" ending to the breakfall (flat fall with a slap).

I teach my students to learn to fall in the space available, and in a cramped space, you usually won't have a "high fall" situation, but I teach them to do "long rollouts" and "short rollouts" for dissipation of force in smaller spaces. Breakfalls can be "airborne" or a combination of a rollout and a slap to dissipate the force.

There is also an element of falling which involves "one-sided" falls, or falls where the ukemi takes you from one shoulder to the opposite hip. Judo used to use the "one sided" falls quite a bit, but now with crosstraining, I'm seeing more and more of the "crossover" falls used (especially in demos). Being a "more vertical" art than Aikido, Judo's breakfall techniques are a little better than those in most Aikido schools unless the instructor is trained in both arts. JMHO...

_________________________
What man is a man that does not make the world a better place?... from "Kingdom of Heaven"

it's simple : a 'high ' fall is usually from shihonage, instead of the usual backroll, you fall from you shoulder, and from koshinage. usually a breakfall from kotegaeshi is not a high fall ( but it isn't low either.) .

For instance when I was 4th kyu, I realized that I wasn;t falling the same from shihonage as the advanced students. The assistant sensei, a 5th dan, USAF-hombu dojo told me to frst try to fall from a "low shihonage" >> he then proceeded to move me into the traditional shihonage fall, but he was seated, and thus my shoulder and twisted wrist were close to the ground. He let go , then I did a forward roll onto the mat.. This progressed to a quick forward roll from higher off the mat, then a forward breakfall from 1 foot up, then finally, from my shoulder , about 5 feet off the mat....

Another way to look at it is that A high fall is usually one were if you don't fall correctly, you could in theory break your neck. this sounds dangerous, but if your uke happens to be someone mugging you with with a knife in the middle of the night and you're unarmed, well then it's just too bad for uke, isnt it?

but nage has to know how to throw uke if uke is planning a high breakfall. usually in our dojo, 4th kyu ( blue belt ) and up take that kind of ukemi.